Question about the lore of Warcraft

So, I've started to read through the Warcraft books in chronological order starting with the War of the Ancients trilogy and it got me thinking. Will I have to play through Warcraft 1-3 in order to get all the lore or will the books fill me in just fine?

You'll have to play Warcraft 3 and it's expac, but 1 and 2 have been retconned to oblivion. You'll learn more about the events of Warcraft 1 and 2 by reading fan sites like wowpedia than you would by actually playing these games (which suck balls btw).